shemp

Hi,

First off apologies if this is post isn't appropriate for this forum, but I need some advice.

I live in South Korea. My son was born here a few weeks ago. I want to apply for his British passport. But before I do that, I want to apply for his consular birth certificate. As part of the application we have to submit his local/Korean birth certificate. We want to register him here locally this week.

As part of the application I also have to submit a "Birth Registration Confirmation Form."

What I want to know is if it's okay if we register him with my wife's Korean last name. E.g. "Park Ga Bin." When we eventually move to the UK in the future we want him to have my surname instead.

Here's my question: Does the name we register him under in Korea have to be the same as the name we want his British passport to be?

For example: If his name on his Korean birth certificate is "Park Ga Bin", can we have his consular birth certificate and British passport be under the name of "Gavin Smith"? ("Gavin" being the Anglicized version of "Ga Bin")

Or would we have to register his birth certificate in Korea as "Smith Ga Bin"?

I'd appreciate any help or advice.

BritInParis

If you wish for his name to be Gavin Smith then I would register him as such with the Korean authorities if that’s possible. Does the name you give have to use Hangul or can you use Roman characters?

shemp

Hi,

For his locally issued birth certificate, everything is in Hangul. But we can get an English certificate from the hospitals International department.

After discussing with my wife we would register him as "Smith Gavin Park" in Korean. I can't seem to post Hangul characters here, but that's the anglicised version.

As far as I understand on the "birth registration confirmation form" we can specify that we want his UK name to be Gavin Park Smith.

Park is my wife's family name, so we want to use that as his middle name in the UK.

It's all quite confusing

sun_burn

If the Korean rules are anything like that of the Japanese, this might be a little problematic. My son has my wife's surname as his middle name and mine as his surname in his US birth certificate and US passport. But his Japanese passport has his maternal surname as his surname, since that's how they require their passports to be; as far as I know that's also how he's listed on her koseki. He has his name in regular order listed out in the observations section.

shemp

Originally we wanted to have his name in Korea be registered with my wife's Korean surname and a Korean first name.

What I'm not sure about is if his British passport/birth certificate can be with my surname.

BritInParis

I wound try and keep the names as consistent as possible. HMPO is very reluctant to issue a passport in one name when the person concerned is known by another.

shemp

Yeah, we will register his name in Korea with my surname, and with my wife's surname as a middle name.

Thanks for the replies.